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July 12, 2013

FEATURED BLOG

"All Eyes on Texas," Amelia Rosch, Ms. Magazine blog: Rosch notes that the Texas House on Wednesday passed its version of a wide-ranging antiabortion-rights bill (HB 2) that was filibustered by state Sen. Wendy Davis (D). Davis has joined a bus tour with Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards and other activists to visit major cities and highlight the bill's negative effects on women. Rosch adds that the "debate over Texas women's reproductive rights quickly heated up" because of attention to the bill, and a tentative vote on the measure held Tuesday falling "almost entirely along party lines." Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) on Wednesday said the Senate counterpart to HB 2 could come up for a vote on Friday (Rosch, Ms. Magazine blog, 7/10).

"Women's Health Experts Virtually Absent From Cable News Coverage of Texas Abortion Bill," Culp-Ressler, Center for American Progress' "ThinkProgress": Culp-Ressler highlights a new analysis by Media Matters showing that women's health experts were "noticeably absent" from coverage of abortion restrictions being debated in Texas. Culp-Ressler writes that in 96% of segments on the legislation, cable new programs instead "opted to feature political pundits who aren't actually physicians or reproductive health experts." She notes, "This is hardly the first time the media has underrepresented the demographics that could best speak to reproductive health issues," adding that "gender and ethnic diversity on most cable news networks has actually been declining over the past several years" (Culp-Ressler, "ThinkProgress," Center for American Progress, 7/11).

FEATURED BLOG

"House Republicans Slip Anti-Choice Measure Into Appropriations Bill," Adele Stan, RH Reality Check:"When legislators want to avoid a fight on a controversial measure, they'll often bury it in the kind of bill where you would least expect to find it," Stan writes, adding, "That's exactly what happened" when a House Appropriations subcommittee "added an anti-choice measure limiting the rights of women who live in Washington, D.C. to a general appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014." Stan writes that the rider -- which would bar the district from using local tax revenue to fund abortions for low-income women -- "is nothing new," as it was first added in 1989. However, she explains that the measure "is receiving renewed attention as Republican politicians at both federal and state levels appear to be making anti-choice measures the centerpiece of their legislative agenda" (Stan, RH Reality Check, 7/10).